
Crtntrtncj of f\)c MtQ&'mm, 

1776. 




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Glass U »^ 

Book^ 



LANDING OF THE HESSIANS, 

1776. 



A PAPER READ AT THE MEETING OF THE 

MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

FEBRUARY 11, 1904. 



BY 



THE REV. EDMUND F. SLAFTER, D.D. 

RESIDENT MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY ; CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE 

NEW HAMPSHIRE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 

ETC., ETC., ETC. 



BOSTON 

1904. 






REPKINTED FROM THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS 
HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 



Source unknown 
f Mi '05 



LANDING OF THE HESSIANS. 



The following letter will, for the most part, explain itself. 
It bears no date, but was issued probably in some part of 
July, 1776. The original, of which this is a copy, is in the 
possession of Miss Mary Long Gilman, of Exeter, New Hamp- 
shire. The letter is as follows : — 

By Several Authenticated Accounts lately Received, Twelve Thou- 
sand or upward of German Troops are on their passage from England 
said to be bound to Boston, but as the place they are bound to is 
not Certainly known it is of great Importance that each Colony be 
prepared to Oppose them. Therefore you are Required Immediately 
to give orders to all the Captains under your Command to Direct 
their Several Companies to hold themselves in Readiness to March 
on the Shortest Notice, and that they Equip themselves in the best 
manner they can, and you are to take the most unwearied pains to 
Examine into the State of the Soldiers & in particular see their fire 
Arms are kept in the utmost Readiness for Action, and in Case of 
an Alarm or Certain Notice of the Landing of Troops in the Massa- 
chusetts Bay or New Hampshire & Assistance is Required to give 
orders to your Several Companies to Muster & March as many men 
as can be possibly Raised out of them, properly Officered with Tried 
Officers, Captains & Subalterns according to the Number of Men, 
to the place where said Troops are Landed, to Assist in Repelling 
them, and you may assure all Such Officers & Soldiers that may 
March on any Such Alarm that they shall be paid for the time they 
Continue in the Service the same Wages & Billeting as the other 
Troops Raised in this Colony for the publick Service, and that they 



4 

• 

shall not be detained any Longer than the Emergency of Such alarm 
may Require. 

By order of Hon-- Committee of Safety for the Colony of New 
Hampshire. 

Nath?- Folsom — M G 

To Coll Thomas Sticknet. 

A few notes in connection with this paper may be of some 
historical interest. 

It will be observed that the order contained in this letter 
was issued by the authority of the Committee of Safety. 
Immediately after British rule in the Colony of New Hamp- 
shire had been laid aside and abolished, it became necessary 
to establish a new government in place of the old. Conse- 
quentljs as a temporary expedient, the whole civil power 
was invested in a convention consisting of delegates from 
all the towns in the colony. During the recess of this con- 
vention its authority, which was supreme and absolute, was 
delegated to a committee which was called the Committee of 
Safety. The foregoing letter of instruction by Major-General 
Folsom ^ was issued by the authority of this committee. 

Four regiments were organized in New Hampshire to be 
trained and ready on any sudden emergency, and were officially 
named "minute men" because they were to be ready at a 
moment's warning. The foregoing letter was addressed to 
Colonel Thomas Stickney, and similar letters were doubtless 
addressed to the colonels of the three other regiments. We 
do not however know that they are still extant. This may be 

1 Nathaniel Folsom, at this time Major-General of all the military forces 
of New Hampshire, rendered very important service during the whole period of 
the Revolutionarj' War. Even in the colonial period, in the expedition to Crown 
Point on the 8th of September, 1755, as captain of the New Hampshire contin- 
gent, he led an attack upon the retreating army of Baron Dieskau, causing 
great loss to the French, capturing numerous prisoners, with large spoils of 
stores and ammunition. 

He was sent by the first Provincial Congress of New Hampshire to the Conti- 
nental Congress in Philadelphia in the autumn of 1774. He was chosen Major- 
General of the forces of New Hampshire in the early part of the sunmier of 1775. 
He was a prominent member of the Committee of Safety, and likewise a member 
of the first Council of the State, which occupied the place of the Senate consti- 
tuted at a later date. He was born in Exeter, New Hampsliire, in 1726, and died 
there on the 26th of May, 1790. He was an ancestor of Miss Gilman to whom 
belongs the original manuscript letter presented in these pages. A very full and 
carefully prepared notice of General I^olsom may be seen in the " Exeter News- 
Letter" for November 3, 1899, by Mr. Horace B. Cummings. 



the only one that has survived the vicissitudes of the last 
hundred and t^yenty-five years. 

The announcement in this proclamation by the highest 
military autliority in New Hampshire was of a startling 
character. That twelve thousand or more German troops 
were already on their passage from England and were to land 
at some unknown point on the coast of Massachusetts Bay 
or of New Hampshire was well adapted to create a profound 
anxiety and alarm. Our people at that time were exceed- 
ingl}^ sensitive to any impending danger, especially if it were 
involved in mystery. The effect of the witchcraft delusion 
with its horrible consequences had not died away. It had 
created a habit of sensitiveness which lasted more than a 
century and a half after the inhuman and satanic inventions 
for its cure had been laid aside. The stealthy approach of 
the wily savage in the darkness and in unexpected moments 
and places in the border towns, stretching through a period 
of nearly a hundred and fifty years, carrying instant death 
or brutal captivity to hundreds of brave men, gentle women, 
and innocent children, was still fresh in the minds of the 
whole population. The impression which the proclamation 
of the coming Germans made upon the minds of the people 
is not a matter of record, but it requires no exuberant imagina- 
tion to picture the anxiety and fear that prevailed in every 
village, hamlet, or remote settlement in New England. The 
unwelcome news spread with marvellous celerity in every 
direction. 1 

In this excited state of the public mind the imagination 
pictured numberless evils, many of which were little more 
than hysterical fancies, the offspring nevertheless of well- 
grounded fear, — 

" Trifles, light as air, 

Are to the"' fearful, "confirmations strong 

As proofs of holy writ." 

The causes of this foreboding fear may be briefly summed 
up in the following particulars: — 

1 There existed at that time in New Hampshire, and probably in all tiie other 
New England States, a practical method of expressage, wliich met all the de- 
mands and exigencies of the time. In each town there was a committee whose 
duty it was to communicate to the adjoining town the latest news relating to 
the movements of the Englisli army, and they were to communicate it to the 
next, and so on, and in an incredibly short time every town in the State was in- 
formed, and consequently able to take sucli action as the circumstances required. 



6 

• 

First, in New England there was at that time little or no 
knowledge of the people in Germany. They were far away in 
a sense which to-day we cannot easily comprehend. Inter- 
course was rare, communication was slow and uncertain. 
The New Englander knew less of the character and temper of 
the German than we do to-day of the wild tribes in the heart 
of Africa, 

Second, the language of these foreign invaders was not 
understood by our people, and there could be no free inter- 
communication either by writing or word of mouth. Inter- 
course for the most part must be impossible and always 
hazardous. The danger incident to this want of intercom- 
munication had been brought home to them by bitter experi- 
ences with the savages from the first plantation of the colonies. 

Third, the expected German troops were known to be 
mercenaries, paid to fight in a cause of which they had no 
personal knowledge and in which they had no personal interest. 
In the estimation of the people of New England they differed 
little from the highwayman who invaded their homes to pilfer 
and destroy. Their character, so far as it could be learned, 
placed them beyond the pale of Christian intercourse and 
civilization. 

Fourth, it was even reported in some parts of the country 
that these hirelings, soon to reach our shores, were cannibals 
and had an appetite for small babies. 

Fifth, it was believed, on very good evidence, that in battle 
the Germans would give no quarter, or, in other words, that 
all prisoners of war taken by them would be immediately put 
to death. 

Such rumors as these, whether fanciful or well grounded, 
did not fail to produce a profound anxiety and fear. 

But this state of the public mind was destined to be of short 
duration. On the fifteenth day of August, 1776, the German 
troops, whose arrival had been looked for with so much inter- 
est and anxiety, reached Sandy Hook and landed on Staten 
Island. This first instalment numbered not less than eight 
thousand, including ofificers and men. But others followed 
soon after and from time to time, and the total number hired 
by England and landed on our shores during our Revolutionary 
War was tiventy-nine thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven. 
They came from six petty German states, but in history are 



irrespectively denominated Hessians. Of this number twelve 
thousand Jive hundred and fifty-four never returned to tlieir 
German homes. This included those who were killed in 
battle, those who died of disease, those who deserted, and 
finally those who were discharged at the end of the war but 
who preferred to remain and make their homes with the people 
against whom they had been cruelly forced to bear arms. It 
has been estimated that the deserters numbered not less than 
five thousand f 

The rank and file of the Hessians, although forced into the 
service against their wills, were undoubtedly good soldiers, 
who performed their duty with exemplary fidelity. The offi- 
cers probably came willingly, with the hope of rising in com- 
mand and bettering their fortunes. 

In the early stages of the war the Hessian officers, proud 
of their professiou and accustomed to the superior equipment 
of a standing army, looked upon our plainly clad colonial 
officers with a supercilious contempt, and often applied to 
them opprobrious epithets. A mutual dislike was the natural 
and inevitable result. This, however, subsided in some degree 
as years went on. 

An incident illustrates the aversion or even hatred enter- 
tained in New England for these mercenary intruders. At the 
period of the Revolution and long afterward, the most im- 
portant cereal for the table of the rich and poor alike Avas the 
product of the New England soil. The wheat-fields of the West 
were distant, transportation was impracticable, and we were 
wholly dependent upon the home product. An enemy sud- 
denly appeared to arrest the production of this almost necessary 
article of food. An insect unknown before in this region, 
coming apparently in vast numbers, deposited an ovum in the 
soft and succulent part of the plant, which soon developed into 
a voracious pest, and the whole wheat-crop was greatly dimin- 
islied and at last utterly destroyed. Looking about for a 
name that should be appropriate and significant, with a keen 
memory of the past and a touch of patriotic sentiment, they 
called the unwelcome visitor the Hessian fly. 

There is abundant reason for knowing that the Hessian 
officers held out the threat, whether in terrorem or otherwise, 
that no quarter would be given to prisoners of war. When 
1 Vide "The Hessians " b}' Edward J. Lowell, p. 300. 



the life of a prisoner was spared, they spoke of it as an act of 
generosity. In their letters and journals are recorded in- 
stances of prisoners falling upon their knees and begging 
piteously for their lives. 

A notable example of this " threat of no quarter " may be 
seen in the attack on the little fort at Red Bank, in New Jersey, 
on the Delaware River, a few miles below Philadelphia. 
Colonel von Donop, one of the most distinguished Hessian 
officers, with an ample force of mercenaries, was directed to 
capture this fort. On his arrival he sent an aide de camp to 
demand its surrender. The demand was couched in the 
following extraordinary language : " The King of England 
commands his rebellious subjects to lay down their arms, and 
they are warned that if they wait until the battle, no quarter 
will be granted." Colonel Christopher Green, in command of 
the garrison, replied that " he accepted the terms and that no 
quarter would be given on either side." The fort was a tem- 
porary structure, but had nevertheless some good qualities. It 
was equipped with three hundred men and fourteen cannon. 
The attack was made at " double quick " and with exultant 
fury, but it was disastrous. Donop was mortally wounded, 
and his army, possibly impelled by the fear of " no quarter," 
took to their heels. Donop was taken into the fort and 
tenderly cared for till he died three days later. Among his 
last words he said, " It is an early end of a fair career, but I 
die the victim of my ambition and of the avarice of my 
sovereign." 

It is thus quite clear from the sequel of this conflict that 
the American commander did not intend to carry out the 
threat of " no quarter " forced upon him in a moment of ex- 
citement and clearly contrary to the rules of civilized warfare. 
We cannot indeed believe that the Hessian officer himself 
would have carried out his threat if the opportunity had been 
given him. There is no instance on record, so far as we know, 
in the War of the Revolution, in which this savage and bar- 
barous policy was publicly announced, much less carried into 
practice. If any officer of either army indulged in this kind of 
threatening proclamation, he doubtless regarded it as intended 
to produce a restraining fear, wliich might save human life 
and avoid human suffering. 

The information contained in these notes has been obtained 



9 

mostly from the work of Mr. Edward Jackson Lowell, a lately- 
deceased member of this Society, called all too soon from his 
earthly labors. Gladly would the members of this Society 
and all others who appreciate good historical work have 
breathed the prayer of the old Latin poet, — 

" Serus in coeluni redeas, diuque 
Lfetus intersis populo." 

In closing these notes, I cannot refrain from adding a few 
words on Mr. Lowell's monograph entitled " The Hessians and 
the other German Auxiliaries of Great Britain in the Revolu- 
tionary War." 

It was not possible before the publication of this volume to 
obtain from our general histories a clear and definite idea of 
the part taken by the Hessians, or the value and importance 
of their service to the British arms. A need had existed from 
the beginning. Mr. Lowell supplies this need with great ful- 
ness, accuracy, and detail. The sources of information con- 
sulted by him were numerous, various, and of the highest 
credibility. The bargaining for the troops with the German 
princes is adequately, fully, and clearly set forth. By them 
the sacred precincts of the family were invaded, and thou- 
sands of 3'oung men were forced at the point of the bayonet, 
amid the tears of fathers and mothers, into a service which 
piomised them nothing but hardship, suffering, and death. 
The infani}'^ and disgrace of these bargainings in the sole in- 
terest of avarice and of unauthorized power will cling forever 
to the memory of these sordid princes, who in the moral es- 
timation of good men can be placed but little above the 
Roman Emperor who had the malicious hardihood to assassi- 
nate his mother. 

The English were particeps criminis in these unsavory trans- 
actions. The blood-stains on George III. and his ministers 
will not fade away while it is the office and duty of the histo- 
rian to search out and record the truth. Such brutal conduct 
at the present day would shock the moral sense of the civil- 
ized world. 

Mr. Lowell's style is characterized by simplicity, clearness, 
and vivacity. It is eminently suited to the subject of which 
he treats. The narrative moves on in a natural and unpre- 
tentious way, and from the beginning to the end is constantly 



10 

gathering up new elements of interest and importance. The 
student, with even a moderate degree of historical instinct, 
may well be excused if, for the moment, he sometimes imag- 
ines that he is reading an entertaining and absorbing ro- 
mance. In all respects this volume is a needed and valuable 
contribution to the history of our War of Independence. 



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